Congratulations to Our 2025 Grand Prize and First Place Winners!
Imersiv, a breakthrough technology that improves audio performance by 100X compared to today’s very best audio equipment for applications ranging from sound engineering to space missions to medical imaging, was named the $25,000 grand prize winner at a live finalist round held November 7 in New York. Click here for the full list of winners. Also see the Top 100 highest scoring entries. Special thanks to our esteemed panel of judges.
Help build a better tomorrow
Since Tech Briefs magazine launched the Create the Future Design contest in 2002 to recognize and reward engineering innovation, over 16,000 design ideas have been submitted by engineers, students, and entrepreneurs in more than 100 countries. Join the innovators who dared to dream big by entering your ideas in our 2026 contest opening March 1.
Read About All the 2024 Winning Inventions
Special Report spotlights the eight amazing winners in 2024 as well as honorable mentions in each category, plus the top ten most popular entries as voted by our community.
Click here to read moreA ‘Create the Future’ Winner Featured on ‘Here’s an Idea’
Spinal cord injury affects 17,000 Americans and 700,000 people worldwide each year. A research team at NeuroPair, Inc. won the Grand Prize in the 2023 Create the Future Design Contest for a revolutionary approach to spinal cord repair. In this Here’s an Idea podcast episode, Dr. Johannes Dapprich, NeuroPair’s CEO and founder, discusses their groundbreaking approach that addresses a critical need in the medical field, offering a fast and minimally invasive solution to a long-standing problem.
Listen nowThank you from our Sponsors
“At COMSOL, we are very excited to recognize innovators and their important work this year. We are grateful for the opportunity to support the Create the Future Design Contest, which is an excellent platform for designers to showcase their ideas and products in front of a worldwide audience. Best of luck to all participants!”
— Bernt Nilsson, Senior Vice President of Marketing, COMSOL, Inc.
“From our beginnings, Mouser has supported engineers, innovators and students. We are proud of our longstanding support for the Create the Future Design Contest and the many innovations it has inspired.”
— Kevin Hess, Senior Vice President of Marketing, Mouser Electronics
contest
Contest
UCHardChip Inc. Overview:
Carpenter and entrepreneur Ulysses Dinkins formed UCHardChip in 2016 to develop and sell personal protective equipment (PPE) like hardhats that enable hands-free communication with embedded electronics and supporting software to improve safety and productivity in the construction industry, among the least safe and productive in the US.
An Outline Mitigating the Effects of Economic Competition on Homeless Mothers
Abstract:
The “Maternal Cooperative” is an effort to better support high risk single homeless mothers and infants in the first few years of bonding and development.
Bees and other insect pollinators are under threat globally from multiple human pressures. If pollinators disappear completely from an ecosystem, their loss will affect structure of those ecosystems and the natural foods and fibres we use from the ecosystem. So, finding solutions to the problem of pollinator decline are imperative.
The following entries received the highest overall scores from the panel of judges.
They are listed in alphabetical order by title.
1mm-Thin Polymer Aluminum Electrolytic Capacitors
3D Printing of High-Performance Ti Alloys
A Chip Off the Old Box: Painless Defibrillation
A Machine to Keep Human Livers Alive Outside the Body for One Week
Advanced Bionics HiRes™ Ultra 3D Cochlear Implant
Airtomo Air Purification System
An 8 mW Fully Integrated Resonant MEMS Micro-Mass Sensor
An Automated Process for Apparel Manufacturing
Attentiv Catheter - A Sensor-integrated Solution for IV Infiltration Detection
Automobile Wheel Straightening
Avalanche Photodiode Bias Supply for High Volume Applications
Bioadhesive for Cornea Tissue Regeneration
BlueBattery - Storing Renewable Energy Using Water and Table Salt
Bridgefy - Making Apps Work Without Internet
Bringing Comfort To Refugee Camps
CITS Combustion Engine Technology
Controlled Flight Into Terrain (CFIT) Prevention
Customizable Tissue Engineering Patches for Accelerated Wound Healing
DeepDroneID: Remote Drone Identification and Payload Monitoring System
Drone Video Assisted Team Member Coordination in Tactical Situations
Dual Radial Gap Electric Motor Vehicle Conversion Kit
Dynamic Obstacle Avoidance for Quadrotors with Event Cameras
Earlier Lung Cancer Screening Using the Exoutcancer System
Electric Field Imaging Systems
Electric Vehicle Regenerative Acceleration Innovation
Electrochemical Recycling Electronic Constituents of Value (E-RECOV)
Enabling Production of Stranded Natural Gas: Eliminating Flaring and Providing Clean Water
EnviroCool Hybrid Super Truck - Modular Upgrade Platform
Fast Infrared Probe for Cancer Detection
First Responder Sensor Array System
Frame Steered Chassis Virtual Pivot Steering (VPS) Timoney Steering System
Fully Multimedia Autonomous System
Gas-Filled Acoustic Suspension Speaker
Gigabot X: Recycling Plastic via Pellet 3D Printing
Glucowaves for Convenient Pain-free Blood Glucose Level Monitoring
GREI: Graphene-Reinforced Elastomeric Isolators Seismic Isolation of Structures
GUARDIAN - Touch-free, Remote, and Continuous Vital Sign Monitoring of Covid-19 Patients
Hybrid Organic-Inorganic Photoresists for Next-Generation Microelectronics
Inexpensive Thermal Imaging Camera With Open Interface
Life After Mastectomy: Development of Functional Breast Implant Using Reverse Engineering
Making Electronics Devices More Reliable Using the Novel Solution: ENIG-Premium
Meet Petal, the First Disruptive Innovation in Waste Disposal Since 1875
Minimally Invasive Heart Pump for Heart Failure
Multiphysics Design of Narrow Gap Laser Weld Joints
Novel Method of Non-Pharmacological Treatment of Pelvic Floor Pain, Healing and Management
Novel Wickless Heat Spreader for Thermal Management of Earth and Space Based Electronics
Plant Based Biological Air Filtration
PrintIC - Flexible and Recyclable Integrated Circuits and Systems
Pronto Bottle
PUR-Ethanol: The Future of Biofuel Production
Radibond - Superior Assembly of Lightweight Materials for Transportation
Range Extender Engine With Internal Heat Recovery – RECOVER for Hybrid-electric Vehicles
Reducing Climate Change with Waste to Energy
RepelWrap - a Nature-inspired Surface Technology for Repelling Contamination
Ring - Prosthetic Leg Grows Along with Children
Rotating Liner Engine, Minimize Diesel Engine Friction
"SALVARE” - An Autonomous Rescue and Surveillance Bot
Second Generation RADIALcvt (Continuously Variable Transmission)
SelectFlex® the World’s Only Dynamic Arch Control Insole
Solidified Natural Gas (SNG) for Safe Storage and Transport of Natural Gas
Stealthy Radars Immune from Jamming and Interference
Sunthetics: Electrifying the Chemical Industry through Artificial Intelligence
SynthoPlate Artificial Platelet Platform
Taking The Guesswork Out of Brain Surgery!
The Future for Helmets is Now - Introducing Fluid Displacement Technology
The Future of the Four Stroke Internal Combustion Engine
The World's First Filtered Water Bottle Made From Plants!
Thermionic Wave Generator (TWG)
Three-Dimensional Printing of Multicomponent Glasses
Transformational Li-ion Batteries with ≥10x Longer Life/Safer than Current LIBs
TriboFuge - Water from Air Harvester
ULTRARAM™: Compound Semiconductor Universal Memory
Vehicle Threat Detection System (VTDS)
Virtual Reality Laboratory to Teach Manufacturing Classes Online: Responses to Convid-19 Shutdowns
Virtual Smart White Cane for Obstacle Detection
Wall Intengrated Oxy-fuel Combustion for Piston Engines
Wearable Continuous Blood Pressure Monitors
2020 Entries
>> All
>> Aerospace & Defense
>> Automotive/Transportation
>> Consumer Product Design
>> Electronics/Sensors/IoT
>> Manufacturing/Robotics/Automation
>> Medical
>> Sustainable Technologies/Future Energy
2020 Participants
2020 Results
Kevin Alderman
Heat Treat Engineer
Malath Arar
Staff Engineer
Dean Barker
Director
Thomas Barron
Technical Program Manager
Richard Berger
Lead Program Engineeri Aero & Thermal - Trucks
Philip Breedon
Professor
Eric Bronson
Senior Lighting Engineer
Paulo Cabrita
Engineer
Sabin Carpiuc
Senior Engineer Physical Modeling
Miguel Castillo
VP Technology Development
Chieh-Min Cheng
Research Fellow / Area Manager
Federico Cindolo
Director of Research
Chris Cook
Senior Engineering Manager
Jeff Crompton
Principal
Fernando da Mota Lopes Junior
Mechanical Engineer
Adrian Draghici
R&D Manager
David Ferguson
Global Technology Leader
Francesco Ferretti
Product Design Engineer
Jon Fifield
Chief Engineer
Mitch Finne
Senior Engineering Manager
Inmaculada Galvez
Supply Chain Quality Manager
Brian Gleason
Chief Engineer
Bhaskar Gopalanarayanan
Senior Staff Engineer
Jim Hathaway
Manager, Advanced Technologies Programs
Jesus G Hernandez
Functional Validation Manager
Robert Holzhauer
Electrical Cost Engineer
Dave Hosey
Engineering Manager
Paolo Imperia
Operations Manager
Vivek Jain
Lead Expert
David Jorde
Development Consultant
Tomasz Kawala
Senior Electronics Designer
Marisabel Kelly
Chemical Engineer
Alex Khenkin
Principal Acoustics Engineer
Boris Khusid
Professor
Sungwan Kim
Professor
Bharath Konda
Research Engineer
Belal Krad
Lead Mechanical Engineer
Patrick Krueger
Manager Manufacturing Engineering
Deepak Kulkarni
Alastair Laing
Director, Advanced Systems Engineering
Dennis Lanaria
Associate Test Engineer
Hank Lawson
Director, NERRTC
Joseph Lipman
Director of Device Development
Jair Lizarazo-Adarme
Research Engineer & Adjunct Faculty
Benjamin Lunzer
Professor
Peter Matysiak
Senior Process Engineer
Jose Guadalupe Mercado Rojas
Scott Moore
Chief Engineer
Kevin Moore
Senior.Principal Engineer
Arunachalam Nagarajan
Engineering Manager
Paul Nussbaum
Professor
Stephen Osborne
Director of Engineering
Gustavo Palacio
Latin America KCP SCH&OPs Director
Anilkumar Pandit
Senior Consulting Engineer
Joon Chul Park
Part Leader/Senior Researcher
Jay Paster
Electronics Engineer
Samuel Phillips
Consulting Engineer
Marek Piechocinski
MEMS Design Engineer
Peter Piechocniski
Manager Electrical Application
Antonio Quintieri
Principal Engineer
Samson Rajakumar
Depty General Manager, Transmission Systems
Charles Reiss
Senior Integrated Design Engineer
Robert Render
Business Development Manager, Sustainability
Edgar Rodriguez
Director, Smart Interactions Design Group
Daniel Santos
Chief Product Engineer
Alex Selvarathinam
LM Fellow
Amit Sharma
Senior Controls Engineer
Susan Stanton
Principal
Mike Stokes
Principal Design Engineer
Christian Miguel Strubel
Human Factors Engineer
Andrew Tanzer
Senior Principal Engineer
Vladimir Theodorof
Engineer Specialist
Torbjorn Virdung
Technical Expert, Complete Vehicle CFD
Mingji Wang
Technical Director
Rich Wells
Assistant Professor
Puck Yan
Principal Professional Staff
Bradley Yearous
Principal Engineer
{ctf_votes:2020}
{ctf_profile:list:2020}
GRAND PRIZE
The ULiSSES™ Device for Organ and Limb Preservation
Leonid Bunegin, Rafael J Veraza, and Tom DeBrooke, Vascular Perfusion Solutions Inc., San Antonio, TX, USA
AEROSPACE & DEFENSE CATEGORY
The Foldable Drone: A Morphing Quadrotor that can Squeeze and Fly
Davide Falanga, Kevin Kleber, Stefano Mintchev, Dario Floreano, and Davide Scaramuzza, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland
Honorable Mention – Aerospace & Defense Category
Exponential Engine
Frank Ardezzone, Santa Clara, CA, USA
Augmented Reality Monitoring System for Aircraft Wiring Maintenance
Daryian Rhysing, Evaguel Rhysing, and Donald DeVito, United Aircraft Technologies, Dover, DE, USA
Impregnated Epoxy Actuators Paired with a Sparse-Array Sensor Grid for Detection of Composite Barely Visible Damage
Zhaoyuan Leong, Nicola Morley, and Pratik Desai, University of Sheffield, Sheffield, UK
Controlled Flight into Terrain Prevention
Charles Wood, Orange, CA, USA
AUTOMOTIVE/TRANSPORTATION CATEGORY
The World's First Standalone AC (Alternating Current) Battery
Tadashi Kubo and Farazane Taraie, AC Biode Ltd., Chiba, Japan
Honorable Mention – Automotive/Transportation Category
Camless Glide Valve Engine Technology
Jeff England, Robert G. McLean, and Gary Cotton, Grace Capital Partners, North Little Rock, AR, USA
Conrodless Ultra-Low-Vibration Engine Using Z Mechanism
Kyoko Yoshizawa, Takumi Yoshizawa, Yutaka Yoshizawa, and Satoshi Yoshizawa, Z Mechanism Technology Institute, Yonezawa, Japan
Reversible Magnetic Transmission for Electric Vehicles
Earl Douglass, Roller Clutch Tools, Auburn, CA, USA
Flit Lightweight Folding Ebike
Dave Henderson, Flit, Cambridge, UK
CONSUMER PRODUCTS CATEGORY
Livox
Carlos Edmar Pereira and Paulo Henrique Araujo de Menezes Rodrigues, Livox International LLC, Orlando, FL, USA
Honorable Mention – Consumer Products Category
The IFS: Learning Code without Screens from the Age of Three
Luis Martin, Esther Borao, Fergus Reig, and Borja Latorre, The IFs, Makeroni Labs, Zaragoza, Spain
Beddingo – The First Reinvention of Sheets in 100 Years
Yonatan Guy, Beddingo, Tel Aviv, Israel
Braille II
Aliaksei Khomchanka, Hamburg, Germany
Beachill
Antoine Sayah, Beachill, Keserouan, Lebanon
ELECTRONICS/SENSORS/IoT CATEGORY
Simple Cost-Effective Sensor for Early Detection of Battery Faults
Steve Risser, Jim Saunders, Alex Morrow, Kevin Spahr, Krista Smith, Russ Kittel, Ben Eisenmann, and Flora Li, Battelle, Columbus, OH, USA
Honorable Mention – Electronics/Sensors/IoT Category
Write Once Read Forever Archival Data Storage
Eric Rosenthal, Richard Solomon, Jonathan Smith, Clark Johnson, and Brian Solomon, Creative Technology LLC, Hockessin, DE, USA
Smart Beat
Nate Ruben, Smart Beat, Smithfield, UT, USA
Eye of Horus: Open Source Eye Tracking System
Jorge Mata Arribas, Luis Martín, Esther Borao, Fergus Reig, and Borja Latorre, The IFs, Makeroni Labs, Zaragoza, Spain
iAED – Life Saving Phone
Samantha J. Horseman, Curtis Gonter, Chris Adusei -Poku , Hawra Al Dawood, and Maryam Al Ghareeb, efactory IT Future Center, Dhahran, Saudi Arabia
MANUFACTURING/ROBOTICS/AUTOMATION CATEGORY
High-Speed Joining of Metal to Plastics with the HPCI® Joining Gun
Philipp Goetze, Annett Klotzbach, and Maurice Langer, Fraunhofer IWS, Dresden, Germany
Honorable Mention – Manufacturing/Robotics/Automation Category
Puncture-healing Engineered Polymer Blends
Keith Gordon, Brian Grimsley, Roberto Cano, Michael Czabag, Emilie Siochi, Dennis Working, and Russell Smith, NASA Langley Research Center, Hampton, VA; Scott Savada and Timothy Scott, University of Michigan, USA
Solid State Batteries: Better, Faster, Cheaper Using Plastic Injection Molding Technology
Marc Jaker, JAKERTECH, New Brighton, MN, USA
AweSEM: Increasing Access to High-Resolution Imaging with a Low-Cost Scanning Electron Microscope
Casimir Kuzyk, Gabriel Robinson-Leith, Alex Dimitrakopoulos, David Weekes, Fabian Pease, and Alireza Nojeh, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada
3D Printing Technology of the Future
Justin Nussbaum, Ascend Manufacturing, Knoxville, TN, USA
MEDICAL CATEGORY
Cervical Stabilization Device (CSD)
Benjamin Booher, Scottsdale, AZ, USA
Honorable Mention – Medical Category
Monitoring of the Central Blood Pressure Waveform Via a Conformal Ultrasonic Device
Chonghe Wang, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA, USA
Apparatus and Method for Donning Hygienic Gloves
Martin Harrison and Steve B. Kalish, HYGIENEXT, Chicago, IL, USA
Biomimetic 3D-Printed Scaffolds for Spinal Cord Injury Repair
Jacob Koffler, Wei Zhu, Shaochen Chen, and Mark Tuszynski, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA, USA
Body-on-a-Chip
Anthony Atala, Colin Bishop, Adam Hall, John Jackson, Sang Jin Lee, Sean Murphy, Tom Shupe, Aleks Skardal, Shay Soker, and James Yoo, Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine, Winston-Salem, NC, USA
SUSTAINABLE TECHNOLOGIES CATEGORY
Wave2O – Clean Water from Ocean Waves
Olivier Ceberio, Resolute Marine, Boston, MA, USA
Honorable Mention – Sustainable Technologies Category
A New Architecture for Safe Lithium-Ion Batteries
Carl Hu, Soteria Battery Innovation Group, Greenville, SC, USA
Energy-efficient “Greenest” Air Conditioner that Cools without Warming the Planet
Kian Jon Ernest Chua, National University of Singapore
Astropharmacy
Arvind Veluvali, Allison Lin, Sophia Zheng, William Brakewood, and Alexandra Rempe, Brown University; Cameron Park, Alexander Somero, Teaghan Cowles, and Cale Lester, Stanford University; Dominique WuDunn and Mary Elizabeth Adler, Princeton University; Lynn Rothschild, Patrick Brennock, and Tomasz Zajkowski, NASA Ames Research Center. USA
Engineering a Plastic-Eating Enzyme
Gregg Beckham, Bryon Donohoe, Nicholas Rorrer, William Michener, Michael Crowley, and Christopher W. Johnson. National Renewable Energy Laboratory; John McGeehan, Harry Austin, Mark Allen, and Alan Thorne, University of Portsmouth; Fiona Kearns, Benjamin Pollard, and H. Lee Woodcock, University of South Florida; Rodrigo Silveira and Munir Skaf, University of Campinas; Ramona Duman, Kamel El Omari, Vitaliy Mykhaylyk, and Armin Wagner, Diamond Light Source; Graham Dominick and Lilly Amore (formerly of National Renewable Energy Laboratory)
TOP TEN MOST POPULAR ENTRIES
Life Shot: On-Site Tissue Repair Solution
Victor Manuel Castano, Enrique Isaza, and Duverney Gaviria, Biotriskel Biotechnologies, Pereira, Colombia
Automatic Counting Device
Champak Bora, Guwahati, India
Algae Biodiesel: A Sustainable Fuel for the Power Generation Sector
Alpesh Mehta and Nirvesh S. Mehta, Godhra, India
Crushing Bottles of Water and Aluminum/Paper Cans
Bbasali Bagheri and Vahid Asghari, Elmosanat, Qaem Shahr, Iran
Artificial Intelligence Multi-Meter
Shubham Avhad, Tanmay Gore, Vikrant Chincholkar, and Vedant Satpute, Pune, India
Flit Lightweight Folding Ebike
Dave Henderson, Flit, Cambridge, UK
Ice Tech
Alexander Vargas Almeida, Gladys del Carmen Velázquez López, Daniel Ceballo López, Alexis Eduardo del Río Olivé, José Manuel Candelero Sánchez, and Norma del Carmen Domínguez Rodríguez, Tabasco, Mexico
Eye Gaze Interactions
Irfan Ahmed, Hamza Ahmed, Adeel Ahmed Awan, Sana Nadeem, and Haziq Tanveer, Karachi, Pakistan
Camless Glide Valve Engine Technology
Jeff England, Robert G. McLean, and Gary Cotton, Grace Capital Partners, North Little Rock, AR, USA
Kiwi™ - Monitor what was Previously Impossible
Jonathan Gregg, Skyhawk, Derry, NH, USA
BackgroundThe province of Nova Scotia (NS) in Canada has been shown to have very high levels of radon emissions which is often concentrated indoors in the basement of different houses. NS shows one of the highest levels of radon emission in Canada with about 25% higher risk of lung cancers. Moreover,
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